A new wrinkle in the update and fragmentation story emerged today. AndroidSpin is quoting an unnamed T-Mobile employee as saying that the carrier is being told not to release the Android 2.2 update (Froyo) to customers that own the Samsung Vibrant. The reason: to increase sales of the new Vibrant 4G.

But that's exactly it, though. The people who are likely to care about what version of Android their phone is running are typically the same people who are willing and able to install custom firmware. So in essence, (almost) no-one is given incentive to buy the newer phone, and (almost) no-one who cares is crippled by their holding back the new version.